Report: iPhones For Verizon, Sprint Coming As Early As September

It’s been rumored for months that Apple iPhones would soon be able to be used on U.S. mobile networks other than AT&T, and a new report says the company is finally set to begin mass production on the phones as early as September.

Current iPhones use GSM wireless technology exclusively, but the Wall Street Journal, citing sources that have been briefed by Apple on the situation, reports that the company plans to begin manufacturing a version that would run on the CDMA networks used by Verizon and Sprint.

If this is true, that would most likely mean the end of AT&T’s nearly 3-year stateside monopoly on iPhone service. Not surprisingly, AT&T pish-poshes the WSJ report:

Even if these CDMA phones are not made immediately available in the U.S., you can expect some Sprint and Verizon users will attempt to jailbreak foreign CDMA iPhones, allowing them to run on their networks.

“There has been lots of incorrect speculation on CDMA iPhones for a long time,” said an AT&T mouthpiece. “We haven’t seen one yet and only Apple knows when that might occur.”

In addition to news of CDMA iPhones, the Journal says Apple will be releasing yet another slimmed-down, faster version of the existing GSM iPhone.

New iPhone Could End AT&T’s U.S. Monopoly [WSJ]

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